Matthew 13:31-35
The kingdom begins small and hidden, yet it grows expansively, works pervasively, and reveals what was hidden through the King’s parables.
31 He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;
32 which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.”
33 He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.”
34 Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them,
35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”
The kingdom begins small and hidden, yet it grows expansively, works pervasively, and reveals what was hidden through the King’s parables.
Matthew records Jesus teaching that the kingdom of heaven begins in seemingly small and hidden ways yet grows expansively and works pervasively, and that his parabolic teaching fulfills Scripture by revealing hidden things.
Jesus continues teaching the crowds in parables within the Matthew 13 parables discourse.
The Kingdom in Parables: Hearing, Hiddenness, Growth, Worth, and Judgment
The kingdom of heaven is revealed through the word, received by fruitful hearers, hidden from hardened hearts, growing amid opposition, worth everything, and moving toward final judgment under the authority of the Son of Man.